Help making Gaming PC w/ $950 budget

[stylishjm]

Hello there,
Im new to building from scratch but familiar with components. Anyway here are the facts:

Budget - £500 to £600 Maximum ($950)

What I need?
Case and the best-for-price components to make it as powerful as possible while being able to stick to the budget. Would also need to include any tools like anti static straps or whatever that you wouldnt find in a standard tool box.
Nothing fancy, LED's etc can wait until all the important components are out of the way.

What for?
Gaming primarly - world of warcraft etc. 2 - 6 hours use every day.

Yes the budget is small, ive asked the person who wants it done to go up to at least £800 but hes not too rich.

If anyone can recommend what parts I would need to order, and possibly cheap but reliable sites (bear in mind I am in the UK) or threads which contain what I need, I would be very grateful

Thank you!

[plasmas222]

I just recently went through the procedure of deciding on what all to buy for mine. My budget was basically the same as yours. After shipping it came out to 960$. Mine will be just a wee bit more top-notch than is maybe needed for wow... but hey, its a start right? I would suggest looking at my build and downgrading everything a little maybe?

Definitely follow other peoples recommendations before mine though, I'm a novice at custom computers. Especially glc, he knows whats up.

Good luck! ~_^

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129066

Hddr+PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.319410

CPU+Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.315602

dvd Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136177

Graphics Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.320629

ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277

[Khalil]

The links above are broken. $950 is not a bad budget for a gaming rig. As a matter of fact you can build a good gaming rig for less.

Here is a great example:

ASUS M4A77TD AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W
Diamond
DIAMOND 5770PE51GT Radeon HD 5770 1GB
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 24X DVD-R SATA Black 24X DVD Writer - Retail

With what I listed you looking at $590

Choose a case you can get one of those for about $50 unless you are looking for something fancy and Operating system and you are good to go and still be couple hundred bucks under your budget.
If you must you can always spend another $135 and get the Asus 5850 video card instead of the 5770 but I don't think it is necessary unless you plan on playing higher resolution than 1600x1200
If you do decide on going with the 5850 you will need a larger case so it can fit.

[David M]

Way cool new avatar khalil.

[Khalil]

Thanks, I was looking for something Intel Vs. AMD but instead I found this one and it is really cool. Loved MAD when I was younger!

[glc]

You are all overlooking the fact this guy is in the UK - and Newegg links and prices are useless.

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by glc You are all overlooking the fact this guy is in the UK - and Newegg links and prices are useless.

You are right George but I am not familiar with UK Etailers, this was just a sample of hardware he could buy that would save him some money and still game really well.

[stylishjm]

Thanks for the links + info. The person wants the best he can get for £500 ($940ish) even though he mainly plays WoW, if he ever decded to try some fps or whatnot then at least he would be able to play it (hopefully) at high - max settings.
Im not too familiar wth high spec components as im used to building the avarage family computers wth standard components so any advice on building gaming orientated computers would be alot of help.

Im going to be using this site to get the majority of the parts http://www.overclockers.co.uk/

[glc]

Is this 500 quid budget just for the case and its contents? Does it have to include monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, operating system, and any other peripherals?

[Khalil]

The system I listed specially if you add the 5850 will play any game on the market and play it well. To go with an Intel i7 and a low end video card makes zero sense when it comes to gaming. When building a gaming rig video card and power supply are paramount. If you go with an i7 or even an i5 you might not be able to fit in a powerful video card in that budget.

[stylishjm]

Originally Posted by glc Is this 500 quid budget just for the case and its contents? Does it have to include monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, operating system, and any other peripherals?

Yes just the case and contents. By the way for the graphics card, im not too sure if his monitor has vga / dvi or what so im going to have to let you know as soon as I get hold of him

[Khalil]

It won't matter if it is VGA or DVI all the new cards come with adapters.

[stylishjm]

Originally Posted by Khalil The system I listed specially if you add the 5850 will play any game on the market and play it well. To go with an Intel i7 and a low end video card makes zero sense when it comes to gaming. When building a gaming rig video card and power supply are paramount. If you go with an i7 or even an i5 you might not be able to fit in a powerful video card in that budget.

I was thinking of getting the person an i5, so hopefully he might stretch his budget by an extra $150

[Khalil]

For us to help you we need a real budget. I just checked that site you provided. From the prices I saw I don't see it happening even at $1100 with an i5 system. The i5 650 is already 151 pounds. If you are stuck on Intel you might be able to pull it off with an i3, gaming rigs don't need quad core.

[stylishjm]

Ok, the budget will stay at $900 to compensate for any price differences between US and UK

[glc]

Being that we will be researching parts on UK sites, please give us the budget in pounds.

[stylishjm]

Sorry I assumed you were going to look it all up on US sites. Budget is £550

[Khalil]

I don't see it happening at 550 pounds with an i5 and quality components.

[glc]

I'm heading out for the afternoon - I'll see what I can come up with later for some kind of Intel build. I'll also use some sites other than Overclockers, they don't have much lower end stuff.

[stylishjm]

OK let me start again and make it as clear as possible.
What I need is a cheap yet visually appealing case (which I will potentially ruin with a thousand leds) and the best-for-price components to make it as powerful as possible for gaming for £550.

[stylishjm]

Originally Posted by glc I'm heading out for the afternoon - I'll see what I can come up with later for some kind of Intel build. I'll also use some sites other than Overclockers, they don't have much lower end stuff.

Thanks appreciated. Overclockers was reccomended by friends as I used to get most of my parts from either ebay or from second hand / open box specialist shops.

[Khalil]

Problem is, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I really like the look of x-clio cases like this one but some of my friends and customers find them to be hideous.
I think a safe bet on an appealing case is the Antec 900 if it is available where you are at.

I have also used these before, the quality is not as good as Antec or x-cliio but they are pretty solid cases.

[stylishjm]

That xclio is more than perfect but the price would be too much.

Not sure about 900 but there is the 902 but that is around the same price as the xclio.

That NZXT looks very nice aswell and is a good price.

Not to worry anyway, the components are the main thing. The case can be decided later although this one does look nice for the price

[Khalil]

Yes that is a good case, in the USA the brand name is Apevia, however their power supplies are no good.

[glc]

Here's a well balanced entry level i5 gaming system from Overclockers using quality parts for 504 quid including VAT but without a case. Get whatever case you like with no PSU. I do not know what their shipping policy or costs are.

Asus P7P55D LE mobo - 105
i5-750 processor retail box - 152
Corsair DDR3-1600 2x2gb kit ram - 93
WD Black 640gb hard drive - 51
LG SATA DVD burner - 20
Antec Basiq 550 plus PSU - 56
Sapphire or Powercolor Radeon 5770 - 127

Overclockers has changed - they now serve a much wider price spectrum.

[Khalil]

For a gaming rig George don't you think the guy would be better with a 5850 and a cheaper processor? I think the AMD rig with the 5850 will be a much better gaming rig.

[glc]

The 5770 is a fine midrange card. It looks like he's just playing WoW anyway.

[stylishjm]

Thanks for that! But yes, I agree with Khalil, say if the person wants to play some fps he would want it at good settings. would sacrificing the hard drive for a 500gb and changing from i5 to i3 then getting a slightly more powerful graphics card be better?

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by stylishjm Thanks for that! But yes, I agree with Khalil, say if the person wants to play some fps he would want it at good settings. would sacrificing the hard drive for a 500gb and changing from i5 to i3 then getting a slightly more powerful graphics card be better?

Yes, games will always bottle neck your video card before the CPU. For example, my daughter plays WoW on a single core AMD Athlon 3700 with an Nvidia 8600GTS when I bought her the latest expansion she started experiencing lag in raids. I upgraded her video card to a GTS250 and now she has zero lag even in the biggest mob rooms with full raids, her computer still has the single core AMD Athlon 3700.
Its all about the video card, the better the video card the better the machine will game.
Some of the newer games use up more of the CPU but any dual core even a Celeron Dual core will do the trick as long as you have a powerful graphics card.
So either the i3 or the AMD I recomended will work fine, both Intel and AMD are high quality processors, AMD just happens to be a little cheaper.

[stylishjm]

Would you be able to reccomend an AMD processor that would easily fit into my budget